Otakusphere (not) Weekly Episode 30: Join the Club Already

This week, LB, Lifesong and I discuss business dealings between Crunchyroll and Funimation, as well as a whole bunch of currently airing anime. Shows covered include, but are not limited to:

—Tsurune

—SAO Alicization

—Uzamaid!

—Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Sempai

—Run With The Wind

—Ms. Vampire Who Lives in My Neighborhood

—Conception (dropped LIKE A TON OF BRICKS.)

So, how are you guys liking these more casual-format podcasts? I liked doing the edited shows, but as time went on, they became increasingly impractical, as our long hiatus in 2017 shows. I like having the opportunity to chat about new, currently airing stuff without having to wait for episodes to go through the editing process, plus all the other complications that went along with that. Still, I’m open to suggestions– unless your suggestion is “Karen, I want you to spend five hours editing each episode of the podcast,” because that’s just silly.

As for the funimation / cruncyroll split, I’d say I’m indifferent and I hope they actually compete. Honestly I felt like CR was getting a way better deal and sort of cheating their way into the home release market. They did mention they will still honor anything that was pre-ordered before the end of the partnership and will be curious to see if they can stay in the home release market or if they were just ridding coat tails.

Bunny Girl – I did want them to stick to Mai being the focus of the whole show, but I can’t say I don’t like what they are doing. I’m pretty down with the monogatari formula and I think there is like 3 more girls to deal with. Hopefully they come to some overarching plot point about how adolescent syndrome came about or why it’s so prevalent in this one particular high school.

I definitely like this whole 80s/90s anime revival thing they have been doing these last couple years. I like knowing that what I’m watching has a completed source material and leaves less room filler or interpretation. Although I don’t like that they modernize the settings in them, but I get why. I wouldn’t be surprised that this was spurred on by these manga reaching some anniversary, since anime is pretty much to promote manga.

One example where the modernization of the setting kind of bugs me is Card Captor Sakura: Clear Card Arc. I understand why they have to do it, because the manga is continuing, but the parts with Tomoyo filming Sakura were such a big part of the original show, and that technology has changed a lot in 20 years. It’s just not the same without Tomoyo lugging that giant camcorder around!

I think there have been some anime lately that did take place in earlier decades, I just haven’t seen them yet, so I probably shouldn’t complain about everything being so modern, lol. But if they want to do more shows that take place in the 80s and 90s, based on classic manga, I’m all for that.

Glad you’re enjoying the podcast, thanks for listening:). If all goes well we’ll start doing some episodes that cover other stuff besides what’s airing currently, I have a couple of specific episode ideas in mind but I’ll keep my mouth shut until we’re ready 😉